Guardiola predicts Alonso will become a manager: He will be good
Pep Guardiola has no doubt former pupil Xabi Alonso will succeed in management once his compatriot hangs up his boots.
Alonso, who announced Thursday he will retire at the end of the season, joined Bayern Munich in 2014 specifically to work under Guardiola. And during their two years together in Bavaria, it was the Spanish manager who felt like the fortunate one.
"We were rivals, big rivals when he was at Real Madrid, and after I was so lucky to have him in Munich," Guardiola said Friday, according to ESPN FC correspondent Jonathan Smith.
"He will come back soon as a manager. I bet, wherever he wants, he will become a manager and will be good.
"How the people speak about him - all the managers that he had in his career - is like a human being. One of the best midfielders I've ever seen in my life.
"He understands the game and has curiosity to understand the game. He knew during the weeks what we would have to do to win the next games, to beat them."
Alonso has enjoyed the privilege of working as an understudy to several of the sport's leading managers, including Rafa Benitez at Liverpool, Jose Mourinho at Madrid, and now Carlo Ancelotti at Bayern.
They each have a different approach to management - Benitez as a tactical planner, Mourinho a Machiavellian force, and Ancelotti a quiet leader - and he could borrow from all of them if he does contemplate a career switch.
This season, the 35-year-old World Cup winner has kept a notebook containing all the training methods and other observations from his 17-year career, according to a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal.
Whether he actually uses them is still not clear.
"I like football. I like watching football, and I like understanding it," he said in a 2016 interview with FCB.tv. "I'm not sure whether I'll end up as a coach, but I can't say I'm definitely not going to be a coach. As always, time will tell."
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